semantic shift: "coming out of the woodwork"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Now try this, from CNN:

"The women may be coming out of the wood [sic] with more details [of
their charges against HC]."

JL

On Sat, Oct 29, 2011 at 9:13 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      semantic shift: "coming out of the woodwork"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Rebel redhead Michelle Bachmann declares that her presidential
> campaign has "nonstop support coming out of the woodwork all over the
> country."
>
> "Coming out of the woodwork" is here a neutral or even a positive term
> implying "appearing unexpectedly."
>
> Had Rep. Bachmann thought otherwise, she wouldn't have said it.
>
> Contrast "coming" with the more freq. "crawling."
>
> JL
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org